Coroners
Business and Financial Operations
Investigates deaths that are accidental, violent, or unexplained, directing autopsies and pathological or toxicological analyses to establish cause and manner of death. Day to day work includes examining bodies at the scene and in the morgue, noting trauma and likely time of death, interviewing people who were present, and preserving objects such as medication containers or suicide notes. Death certificates must be completed, and relatives are given a factual account of what happened. Bodies are removed from scenes and transported to morgues using the proper equipment. This work tends to suit those who can stay methodical around death, document findings carefully, and explain difficult facts to families.
Typical education: Bachelor’s Degree (4-year)
Annual Median Wage in Field (2025)
$80'730
Median Wage Market Position
$80'730
What you might do
- Perform autopsies to determine cause of death
- Complete death certificates naming cause and manner
- Interview people who were at death scenes
- Record where bodies and evidence were found
- Explain the circumstances of death to relatives
- Oversee removal of bodies to the morgue
Skills that matter
- Examining bodies for trauma and identity
- Listening to people at death scenes
- Recording body position and related evidence
- Completing death certificates with assigned causes
- Explaining a death's circumstances to relatives
- Supervising body removal and morgue transport
AI & the future of this role
Hands-on autopsies, scene presence, and legal findings tied to unexplained deaths keep this role comparatively protected. Imaging and lab analytics may assist investigation, but licensing, liability, and courtroom credibility are unlikely to shift quickly.
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Includes O*NET® 30.3 Database information by USDOL/ETA under CC BY 4.0; modified by LostInCareer. Wage/outlook from BLS. Attribution details